Electronic Poker is a popular game that usually will be played in casinos all over the world, or in your house on your PC, through a web connection. The regulations are very simple and consist of the player attempting to get the highest combination of cards as you can in order to acquire cash. In this respect it is very similar as a normal game of poker, minus the interaction with other players. Of course, methods employed during a real-life game of poker, such as tricking, will be irrelevant here.
The game of Video Poker starts when the gambler puts credits (whether it is tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the play button. A hand of 5 cards will be electronically ‘given out’ on the screen.
The Video Poker game also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and bettors should now choose which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the enthusiast wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons should be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they wish, whether it is all or none.
After the bettor has decided on which cards he or she would like to keep, they should press ‘draw’, which will mean that any new cards are handed out if desired. The hand is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payout schedule.
Generally, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It is obvious that the pay out schedule can vary from game to game, so that knowledgeable enthusiasts are able to select the most money-making game each time.
After the first round has played out, the player can either choose to stay on and try to to maximize their winnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that might been won. Additionally, a few styles of the game give the player a chance to increase their winnings, in which case a further round is played. There are also differences between specific machines, with some virtual decks including wild cards and other varying characteristics to enhance playability.